Gettysburg Daily

Gettysburg National Military Park: Then & Now, Part 9: LBG Garry Adelman

May 18, 2010

Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide, and Vice President of the Center for Civil War Photography,
Garry Adelman (far right), along with Barry Martin (left) and Tom Danninger (second from right) created the CD, The Gettysburg Park Commission Photos: Then & Now. Here they are at the Hunley Museum in Charleston, South Carolina with Ed Bearss. This view was taken facing northwest on Saturday October 3, 2009.

Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Garry Adelman, along with colleagues Tom Danninger and Barry Martin, systematically located the camera positions of the 237 photographs included in the Annual Reports of the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission, 1893-1904. The trio arranged the photos into seventeen sections and present the images in a â€œthen & nowâ€ format along with a history of the project and the Park Commission on their CD, The Gettysburg Park Commission Photos: Then & Now. We continue their series with a sampling from each of the seventeen sections.

The Gettysburg National Park Commission (GNPC) issued annual reports from its creation in 1893 until stewardship was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933. The reports, issued each November, covering that year through October, outlined the work of the GNPC for that year. Reports from 1893-1904 were bound into one volume with the photographs that accompanied each report (a practice started with the 1895 report) printed en masse after the text. Together, these images provide a comprehensive view of the battlefield and the Commissionâ€™s work available nowhere else. Comparing the images to the same sites today speaks to the important issues of preservation, commercialization, monumentation, and the growth of the GNMP. Itâ€™s also simply “cool” to look at then & now photos!

View #1: Foundation work of roadway on Seminary Avenue. This view was taken facing north in 1895.

The house in the center background is that of Phillip Charles Henry Krauth which still stands on Seminary Ridge today. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing north in November 2004.

View #4: Itinerary tablets, Army of Northern Virginia, West Confederate Avenue. This view was taken facing northwest in 1903.

These itinerary tablets are now mounted on granite farther south on Seminary Ridge’s West Confederate Avenue. This view looks towards the Fairfield Road. This modern view of the previous photograph was taken facing northwest in October 2002.